An American teenager is stranded in an Italian hospital after falling from a 65-foot cliff and breaking his leg during a school trip to Europe.
Hayden Hill, 18, walked to a beach outside Rome on Saturday with his New Hope High School class from Huntsville, Alabama.
He jumped a fence to take a shortcut to the sand, but realized too late that the fence guarded a steep slope.
Hayden survived but suffered a dislocated hip, a broken ankle and foot and a “minor head injury,” his mother Sharon Hicks said.
“The fact that he survived this fall is nothing short of a miracle,” she said.
Hayden Hill, 18, (pictured with his mother Sharon Hicks at his graduation) is stranded in an Italian hospital after falling from a 60-foot cliff and breaking his leg during a school trip to Europe
He jumped a fence to take a shortcut to the sand, but realized too late that the fence guarded this steep slope – and fell off the edge.
“The community here calls him ‘the wonder boy’ and they have rallied around us with so much support and kindness.”
However, Hayden is stuck in a small community hospital about a 90-minute drive from Rome, where “the language barrier is almost unbearable.”
“We ended up in a very low quality hospital (even the Italians say this),” Sharon explained in a Facebook post.
“And we were stuck with the only doctor here who hates Americans. I’ll probably hear this man’s screams in my nightmares for the rest of my life!’
Hayden’s family wants to get him to the US as soon as possible so he can receive treatment there and he may need more surgeries.
Sharon told in a series of updates how Hayden was cleared by a neurologist on Tuesday, but the orthopedic doctor made the departure difficult.
“The ortho doctor came in yelling and screaming at everyone and will not release Hayden until an American doctor comes in here, shakes his head and says I am taking this boy from you and am now responsible for him,” she wrote on Wednesday.
‘That will not happen.’
Hayden survived but suffered a dislocated hip, a broken ankle and foot and a ‘minor head injury’
Hayden during the trip to Europe in a photo that his mother posted a few days before his fall. ‘I think he’s having the time of his life in Italy! And I think that Italian leather jacket will suit Mom too,” she wrote
Sharon said the Italian doctor wanted an American doctor and nurse to come to Italy and accompany Hayden all the way home to Alabama on a stretcher.
The longer Hayden remains immobilized in the hospital, the more his condition worsens and he develops bedsores and is at risk of pneumonia.
“Hayden needs to get physical therapy from this bed, without a diaper and sitting up, so he doesn’t get pneumonia,” Sharon said.
‘He starts coughing up dark brown mucus and develops a bedsore on his lower back.
‘Hayden is not hooked up to any monitors, all his vitals are clear, we honestly can’t get the doctors to communicate with us in any way to help us get out of here so we can go home for treatment.’
Sharon said her son was not even given a bedpan by hospital staff and spent all day in adult diapers flat on his back.
The U.S. Embassy would provide a wheelchair and a van to take Hayden to the airport and onto the plane, but only if they could find a flight — and release him from the hospital.
“If we can’t get out of here and get home on Saturday, we’ll at least transfer to a better hospital in Rome where more people speak English and he might get better care,” Sharon wrote.
Hayden’s family (pictured with his parents Chris and Sharon Hicks) want to get him home to the US as soon as possible so he can receive treatment, and he may need more surgery.
The longer Hayden remains immobilized in the hospital, the more his condition worsens and he develops bedsores and is at risk of pneumonia
Hayden had at least one good moment in the hospital when he met the first responders who rescued him from the cliff after he lay there in agony for an hour.
‘This really made Hayden’s day. They even did a zoom call with all the other rescuers so they could see him too,” his mother said.
Hayden had travel insurance, but his family had difficulty connecting it to the Italian health care system, and the upfront costs of repatriation before reimbursement could be tens of thousands of dollars.
Family friends are raising money in the US to pay for the specialized medical flight across the Atlantic Ocean and home via Atlanta.
‘The cost for Sharon to fly to Italy to be with her son was not cheap!’ they wrote on the fundraiser.
“At this point, Hayden will most likely have to be transported back to the United States on a medical plane that will cost more than we can ever imagine.
“The goal is to get Hayden back to the United States, regardless of means or cost.”